Overview
What is client onboarding?
For law firms, it’s the journey you take with a prospective client to the point where you have everything ready to begin work on their case.
Here's what we cover:
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The importance of client onboarding in law firms
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Key components of the client intake process
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Challenges when onboarding new legal clients
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Best practices for efficient onboarding
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What to include in your client onboarding checklist
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Using software to streamline the onboarding process
Then let’s get the proceedings underway 🙂
Client Onboarding For Law Firms: Best Practices & Process
The best practices, process and software solutions to onboard new clients to your law firm easily.
The Importance Of Client Onboarding In Law Firms
For legal firms, first impressions are the name of the game, and a positive onboarding experience is your trump card.
A potential client seeking legal assistance is often in a difficult or emotional situation - their first contact with your services and how you handle them should assure them that they’re in supportive, professional hands.
Your client onboarding process can make or break a potential attorney-client relationship. It sets the tone for communication, trust, and ultimately, the success of the case itself.
From a business perspective, the process can eat up huge amounts of time you aren’t billing for.
With a well-designed client intake system, you’ll cut down time wasted on admin and data entry, minimize human error, screen and vet clients more effectively, and free up your time for more billable work.
At the end of the day, it’s crucial to your firm’s growth and long-term success.
The Main Components Of The Client Intake Process
It’s clear then why it matters - but what does the client intake process actually involve?
From the first point of contact to officially securing their representation, let's break down the key components of the typical client intake process for law firms:
1) Initial client contact & information capturing
2) Pre-screening & conflict check
Before a first consult, pre-screen clients and perform due diligence and conflict checks to determine if they’re a good fit for your services. If they’re not, have a list of referrals and resources available that you can point them to - you’ll leave a good impression and be top of mind for future work and referrals.
3) Initial consultation
At this stage, you’re ready to schedule the first consult. Make this easy for clients with an online scheduling tool or use client portal software to create a professional impression off the bat. Use a comprehensive client intake form before or during the initial consult to gather all necessary information.
Shameless plug: ClientManager’s white label software and templates make it super easy to create and edit custom client intake forms in minutes.
4) Fee agreement & engagement letter
Clearly explain your services and fee structure with clients to avoid any misunderstandings down the line. Draft a clear engagement letter that spells out all the details and get your client’s agreement and signatures. Speed up the process with software that generates and populates your engagement letter based on the client intake form, and lets your client sign digitally.
5) Client welcome packet
Provide new clients with a welcome pack including all the information they need such as payment options, team contacts and availability, timelines and deliverables, etc. This sets clear expectations, prevents confusion and creates a smooth experience for everyone involved.
Challenges When Onboarding New Legal Clients
Whether you're just starting to formalize your client intake process or optimizing your existing process, here are some key challenges that a good onboarding process for new legal clients should aim to address:
Managing Client Expectations
Setting accurate expectations around scope of work, timelines, fees and each party's responsibilities at the start of the engagement is crucial. If expectations aren’t properly aligned early on it can lead to frustration and strained client relationships.
Gathering Complete Information Upfront
To properly evaluate a new matter and provide reliable fee estimates, you need the full story from the client. You don’t want to overwhelm them with questions before they’ve even hired you, but you need enough info to vet them. Your initial client intake system should make it easy for the client to provide their info, and ideally be automated to avoid you needing to capture and duplicate information at the next phase.
Vetting Potential Problem Clients
Some clients may give early warning signs of being problematic to work with, while others may not show their true colors till later on. An effective screening process and protocols can help you identify both of these cases early on.
Compliance & Security measures
Law firms need robust compliance procedures in place from the very first interaction. An effective intake process will have all necessary due diligence, conflict checks, and compliance measures built in to avoid costly oversights and errors. The same goes for confidentiality and data security.
Now, let’s get into some best practices for effective client onboarding.
Best Practices for New Client Onboarding
For law firms, everything is built on the client-lawyer relationship, so it’s critical you get it off to the best start. An effective onboarding process should be a win-win for your practice and your clients.
You want it to feel straightforward and efficient while still personal enough to show clients you care.
And for your team, the process should be consistent and well-organized so everyone can focus their attention where it’s needed most.
Here are some onboarding best practices to aim for:
1) Have a documented onboarding process
Get everyone on the same page by mapping out your ideal intake process and creating an onboarding checklist. Spell out what needs to be collected at what stage, who's responsible for what, and when it needs to happen.
2) Conduct thoughtful pre-screening
Have a standard set of questions and criteria to vet new prospects. At the same time, don’t forget to show empathy and provide a personal touch during initial meetings.
3) Discuss Fees Upfront
Clearly lay out your fee structure, accepted payment methods, and alternative billing options during the first client consult to align expectations from the start.
4) Go digital
Save time and prevent errors by setting up digital intake forms, engagement letters, and other documents to replace paper and email. Offer e-signature capabilities for added convenience and efficiency.
5) Integrate systems
Integrate intake forms to feed data directly into your case management system and avoid having to duplicate data entry.
6) Track Prospects Systematically
Define clear intake stages like "needs follow-up" or "intake pending" to easily monitor every prospect's status and make sure no one slips through the cracks.
7) Keep Communication Seamless
Ensure clients and prospects have a seamless experience when they need to get in touch or find relevant updates and information. Using client portal software can help you keep things organized, secure, and easily accessible for both you and your clients.
What Should Be Included in a Client Onboarding Checklist?
Your checklist should provide a clear map of the phases, steps, action points and resources needed to transition a new prospect from the first point of contact into an active engagement.
You can use the starter template below and customize it based on your firm's size, practice areas, typical client profiles, and the specific systems you use.
Example onboarding checklist template for law firms:
Contact / booking form
Follow up on enquiries within 24 hours
Client Intake Form
Verify client details
Conflict of interest checks
Due diligence checks
Initial consultation
Update client file
Communicate fees & billing structure
Engagement letter & other closing documents
Setup client portal
Send welcome packet
Follow-up communication, case review & updates
Client surveys & feedback
Using Software for the Client Onboarding Process
Want to give a big thumbs-down to endless admin and data-entry when onboarding new clients?
One of the easiest ways to optimize your onboarding process is by taking advantage of software that has the built-in tools you need to create an efficient, user-friendly and consistent process for your team and your clients.
Here are a few specific ways a software solution like ClientManager can help modernize your onboarding and prevent admin headaches:
1) Digitize & centralize client data
Using a client management software solution means all your client data can be captured, stored and referenced in one secure place that’s way easier to navigate than a filing cabinet.
2) Say goodbye to paper waste & duplicate data entry
Integrated client intake form builders and templates allow you to create customized online forms in minutes, and let clients capture their own data so you don’t have to!
3. Use a client portal to keep clients on track
Give clients access to a secure, branded client portal where they can schedule appointments, upload files, add e-signatures to documents, and access their matter details throughout the onboarding process. Oh, and send them auto reminders when they need to get cracking!
No onboarding process is perfect…but then again, having the right technology on your side can help you get pretty close!
We'd love it if you tried ClientManager free for 7 days.
Even our own lawyers love the interface, user experience, and simplicity.
Here’s to more happy clients and your onboarding success 😊
Thanks again,
Kyle & CM Team
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